Greens Call on Agricultural Minister to visit intensive pig farm

Green Animal Welfare Spokesperson Sue Kedgley is calling on the Minister of Agriculture to visit a typical intensive pig farm to see for himself the cruelty sows endure when they are locked into crates for months on end.

Ms Kedgley’s call follows the Minister’s admission on television last night that he did not know sow crates were widely used in pig farming in New Zealand.

Last night on TV1’s Sunday programme, Mr Carter was shown video footage of hundreds of sows locked in crates or cages on a North Island pig farm. “Mr Carter looked shocked and said he had no idea sow stalls were widely used in New Zealand,” Ms Kedgley said.

“I am incredulous that the Minister, who has been Chair of Parliament’s Agriculture Select Committee for three years, would not know that sow crates are used widely by New Zealand’s pig industry.”

“His apparent lack of awareness of a widespread and controversial farming technique calls into question his ability to handle the Agricultural portfolio. Not only is this a simple issue of systematic animal cruelty, our whole reputation as a farming nation demands more informed leadership from the Minister than he's currently displaying.”

Ms Kedgley said the pig code is being reviewed this year, and it was vital that the Minister, who will make a final decision about the code, was familiar with the conditions pigs endure on intensively reared pig farms. Ms Kedgley said she was certain one visit to a typical intensive pig farm would convince the Minister that sow crates should now be prohibited.

“This is not a one-off situation of animal cruelty. If you visit an intensive pig farm, as I have, and see for yourself the misery sows endure when they are locked in cages for months at a time, it is quite obvious that sow crates are cruel,” Ms Kedgley said. “You don’t need scientific studies to reach this conclusion; You just need common sense and a sense of humanity.”

Ms Kedgley said sow crates had been allowed to continue in New Zealand only because most New Zealanders, including the Minister of Agriculture, had not seen first hand the conditions that pigs are forced to endure.

Sue Kedgley received a 75,000 signature petition in 2000 that called for better animal welfare of sows, but the call fell on deaf ears.